Heel safety device for ski binding



June 25, 1963 L.-covlmi HEEL SAFETY DEVICE"? FOR- SKI BINDING.

Filed Jime 9".) 1961" LORENZQ- COVINI INZEN TOR.

United States Patent @fiice 3,695,209 Patented June 25, 1963 3,095,209 HEEL SAFETY DEVICE FOR SKI BINDING Lorenzo Coviui, Milan, Italy, assiguor to Cober, Milan, Italy, a corporation of Italy Filed June 9, 1961, Ser. No. 116,052 Claims priority, application Italy June 24, 1960 6 Claims. (Cl. 280-1135) This invention relates to a safety device for anchoring the heel portion of a ski boot in a ski binding wherein the toe clip or clamp portion may be of known type. It is an object of this invention to provide for the skier a high safety of a degree heretofore unobtainable.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a device for anchoring the heel portion of a ski boot which is highly eflicient in use, simple to install and to operate, and economical from the viewpoint of manufacture. A number of ski bindings are known in which safety means for releasing the ski from the boot under torque strain are provided on the toe; usually ski bindings of conventional type are not provided with a safety device which enables forward and upward displacement of the heel of the boot, while those bindings which allow for suitable displacements are rather complex in their construction and operability, e.g. for the purpose of transmitting remote strain by resilient means adapted to secure the heel of the boot. Consequently release devices heretofore proposed are rather complicated and the strapping of a ski is not so quick as would be desirable.

It is therefore a further object of the present invention to provide a device for securing the heel of the boot to the ski (no special toe release being needed) which:

(I) overcomes all the drawbacks mentioned above;

(2) affords a high degree of safety to forward flexures of the skiers foot;

(3) is simple to install and to operate, both in securing and in releasing the boot;

(4) is of simple design.

In accordance with this invention I provide a device which is biased in a heel-gripping sense by an operating lever controlled by a toggle spring, which, if overcome by a certain amount of force exerted upon the heel gripper, releases the boot; consequently the device operates as a safety device for forward flexures of the skiers foot.

According to a feature of this invention the heel gripper includes a double bracket on one side of which there are pivotally mounted two hollow frustoconical rollers adapted to engage the heel of the skiers boot. The hollow rollers are pivotally mounted on the bracket with their facing narrower ends separated by the central leg of the bracket; the opposite legs of the double bracket are pivotally connected with one end of a rod, preferably a threaded bolt, whose other end is slidably supported by a ring aflixed to the operating lever and are also connected with a substantially upright two-part stem which is fastened to a base plate while being movable through a small angle from a released to a secured position.

Again, according to another feature of the invention, the connection between the stem and the operating lever advantageously is a toggle linkage including a compression spring which surrounds the aforementioned bolt and is compressed between said ring and a nut which is mounted on the threaded end of the bolt. The nut bears against the adjacent end of the spring for properly loading the same.

Additionally the releasing force may be adjusted by vertical adjustment of the upper portion of said standard which is hollow and internally threaded at its lower end, to receive the threaded upper end of the bottom portion of the stem Whose head is held pivotally affixed to the ski by the base of the device. The adjustment is effected by means of a knurled ring integral with the bottom part of the stem which may be rotated to alter the positioning thereof relative to the upper stern part.

By way of non-limitative example an illustrative embodiment of this invention is shown in the accompanying drawing in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the binding device according to the invention, and

FIG. 2 is a side elevation partly in section of the device shown in FIG. 1.

The binding device includes an operating lever 1, formed from a metal sheet, which has two side walls 2, 3. The operating lever 1 is pivotally connected at 4 to a base plate 5 to be secured to the skirunner. Between the side walls 2 and 3 of the operating lever 1 there is pivotally mounted at 7 a ring 6 in which there is slidably mounted a threaded bolt 8 having a head 9 engaging the ring 6.

The bolt 8 is surrounded by a compression spring 10 whose tension may be adjusted by means of a nut 11 which bears upon a washer 12 and, thereby, upon the spring 10.

The threaded bolt 8 extends at its front end with a flat portion 8', which is pivotally mounted on pivot pin 8" to the upper stem portion 13 whose bottom end is hollow and threaded as shown at 13'.

The upper stem portion 13 receives the upper end of the bottom portion 14 of the stem which may be inclined by small angles from the vertical position as seen in the drawing. The knurled ring 15 integral with the bottom portion 14 of the stem is operated to adjust the elevation of the upper stem portion 13. The bottom portion 14 has a head 16 connected to the base 5 which is provided with a suitable swivel housing 14' surrounding said head 16. The head 16 rests upon a washer 17 and, through it, upon a rubber pad 18 which is carried by the plate 19.

By clockwise or anticlockwise rotation of the bottom portion 14 of the two-part stem its upper portion 13 is displaced upwardly or downwardly to :adjust the safety degree against forward flexures of the skiers foot, as will be explained later.

On the ends of the pivot 8" projecting from both sides of the upper stem portion 13 there are journaled the legs 20 of a double bracket 21 which carries rotably mounted between its three legs 22, 25 opposite legs 20, two substantially frustoconical rollers 23 supported by the pivot 24 and disposed with their narrower ends adjacent each other but separated by the leg 25 of the universally swivelable bracket.

Furthermore the device comprises: slots 26 and racks 27 for periodical adjustment and for securing it to the ski runner, abutments 28 for the heel of the boot and a link 29 for a safety belt (not shown).

The operation of the device is as follows:

With the skiers boot placed as shown in dotted lines at 30, the handle portion of the lever or tab 31, rubber covered, is rotated forwardly (i.e. clockwise in FIG. 2). The stem 13, 14 is urged forward to bring the rollers 23 into gripping engagement with the heel of the boot. The spring *10, already somewhat precompressed is then further loaded more and more as long as the vector of the force exerted by the spring passes above the fulcrum 4 of the lever 1; the moment of said force opposes the rotation of the lever and tends to push the lever back to the starting position, in the event of its release. On the other hand further rotation of the lever causes the vector of the force exerted by the spring to pass below the fulcrum and the moment to change its direction by toggle action.

The reversed moment urges the lever 1 in its clockwise direction while pushing the rollers 23 against the heel of the ski boot so as clampingly to engage it.

If, with the device in this clamping position, the skier should lift the heel, e.g. for a sudden stop of the runner the two rollers 23 gripping the boot 30 are rocked with the heel and cause the bracket 21 to rotate about the axes 8" to compress the spring 10, thereby canceling the clamping action of the rollers 23 whose path diverges from the path followed by the heel of the boot; it will be seen that the heel-gripping extremity 23 of bracket 21 is positioned below its horizontal pivotal axis 8" so that the heel cannot be raised without concurrent rearward displacement of the top of the stem portion 13 to which this bracket is hinged.

It should here be noted that clockwise or anticlockwise rotations of the knurled ring 15 result in alterations of the position of the bracket 21 and therefore adjustment of the degree of safety of the device.

It will be understood that changes could be made in the safety ski binding of this invention without departing from the scope of the invention as defined by the following claims. It is therefore intended that the matter shown in the accompanying drawing and described in the foregoing specification shall be considered as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

I claim:

1. In a ski binding including a base plate provided with boot-engaging abutments, the combination therewith of a heel-clamping assembly comprising an operating lever pivotally secured to said base plate rearwardly of the boot of a skier, universal swivel means on said base plate between said lever and said boot, an upstanding stem tiltably secured to said base plate by said swivel means, a resilient connection between said lever and the top of said stem, and a heel-gripping member hinged to the top of said stem for swinging motion about a. horizontal axis, said member being provided with a heel-engaging extremity forwardly of said stem and below said axis, said lever being displaceable between a released position and an operating position in which said connection resiliently urges the top of said stem forwardly while maintaining said extremity in clamping engagement with the heel of said boot.

2. The combination according to claim 1 wherein said stem includes a lower portion rotatable on said swivel means and an upper portion threadedly engaged by said lower portion for adjusting the elevation of said axis by rotation of said lower portion.

3. The combination according to claim 1 wherein said connection comprises a toggle linkage including a rod pivoted to said stem, a ring traversed by said rod and pivoted to said lever, and a compression spring surrounding said rod while bearing upon both said rod and said ring.

4. The combination according to claim 3 wherein said rod is a bolt provided with a nut, said nut adjustably bearing upon said spring.

5. The combination according to claim 1 wherein said member is a bracket with three projecting legs at said extremity and with a pair of rollers journaled between said legs for rolling contact with said heel.

6. The combination according to claim 5 wherein said rollers are substantially frust'oconical and face each other with their narrower ends across the middle one of said legs.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,573,955 Cubberley Nov. 6, 1951 2,610,861 Campbell Sept. 16, 1952 FOREIGN PATENTS 172,281 Austria Aug. 25, 1952 173,073 Austria Nov. 10, 1952 1,110,856 France Oct. 19, 1955 1,222,897 France Jan. .25, 1960 

1. IN A SKI BINDING INCLUDING A BASE PLATE PROVIDED WITH BOOT-ENGAGING ABUTMENTS, THE COMBINATION THEREWITH OF A HEEL-CLAMPING ASSEMBLY COMPRISING AN OPERATING LEVER PIVOTALLY SECURED TO SAID BASE PLATE REARWARDLY OF THE BOOT OF A SKIER, UNIVERSAL SWIVEL MEANS ON SAID BASE PLATE BETWEEN SAID LEVER AND SAID BOOT, AN UPSTANDING STEM TILTABLY SECURED TO SAID BASE PLATE BY SAID SWIVEL MEANS, A RESILIENT CONNECTION BETWEEN SAID LEVER AND THE TOP OF SAID STEM, AND A HEEL-GRIPPING MEMBER HINGED TO THE TOP OF SAID STEM FOR SWINGING MOTION ABOUT A HORIZONTAL AXIS, SAID MEMBER BEING PROVIDED WITH A HEEL-ENGAGING EXTREMITY FORWARDLY OF SAID STEM AND BELOW SAID AXIS, SAID LEVER BEING DISPLACEABLE BETWEEN A RELEASED POSITION AND AN OPERATING POSITION IN WHICH SAID CONNEC- 